Tax Office picks BlackBerry

By Nate Cochrane

The Australian Taxation Office is bucking the enterprise trend away from BlackBerry, building on its relationship with the Canadian smartphone maker in a software trial.

The pilot will include email, contact and calendar applications for 400 ATO managers to use on iPads, notebooks and smartphones.

BlackBerry's mobile device management software is still a plus for the company.Credit:AP

Known for its handsets, which have taken a back seat in recent years to Apple's iPhone, Google Android and even Windows Phone devices, BlackBerry is rallying with a push into compliance and security software to manage burgeoning fleets of corporate and bring-your-own mobile devices.

Advertisement

The ATO does not expect to issue BlackBerry's latest Q10 handsets to staff in the trial. ATO chief information officer Bill Gibson says the agency has struck a balance between security and usability by being selective about the content it permits. ''We're looking at how extensible it is into file-sharing or how we would handle more sensitive information,'' he says.

''We're a bit of a follower so we looked at what other government agencies were doing and the level of hardening being done.''

BlackBerry, like some other mobile device management systems, enables the use of ''containers'' on handsets. Mr Gibson says these ''protected app enclaves'' are very controllable and secure but only with severe constraints, including forcing users to work with different apps for common tasks.

The ATO considered Good Technology and AirWatch solutions but was swayed by its existing relationship with BlackBerry.

''We looked at an approach that was more flexible and used native clients on the devices and therefore obtain a better balance between usability and security,'' Mr Gibson says. ''Lock these down and it becomes a little bit unusable, or relax it a bit and change the scope of what information you are prepared to expose and that makes it more flexible.

''We talk about 'usable while secure' – five years ago it would have been 'secure', and 'usable' would be an afterthought.''

The trade-off is that sensitive emails are blocked from going to the handset.

"So we don't have to harden the device like we would if we were sending protected documents. A user can have a native client with personal email in one folder and ATO emails in another folder, so it's a very natural system. We like people to work in the systems they're familiar with."

"The issues with device management are many and varied, from the diversity of devices and operating systems, to the desire for people to use personal devices and apps for work," Mr Gedda says.

"Good Technology, AirWatch, MobileIron and Citrix/Zenprise are the vendors to keep an eye on."

He says technologies that keep data off the devices "alleviate security concerns", which may encourage more rapid deployment of mobile technologies in the enterprise. But the shift from the PC's leisurely three to five-year refresh cycle to annual mobile device updates will challenge users and vendors.

"Customers will be kept on their toes supporting the high refresh rate of devices and operating systems.''

Apple will push iOS 7 out to devices later this week and Google is set to release Android KitKat soon.

The ATO has also recently revealed plans for a separate trial to bring office Wi-Fi to 170 of its Adelaide staff. A successful pilot would see the same technology, processes and systems rolled out to its 25,000 employees nationwide.

The new network will enable ATO staff to use corporate and personal devices to access ATO systems and the internet.

"That will then mean we could consider for some workers in the office, if they have a preferred device they use, their own device. So long as the work they're doing is not too crucial – and if it failed it impacted services to citizens – they could access our system using a thin client on that device," Mr Gibson says.